2019 02-12 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 12, 2019 allowed to ask questions, you know, for the permitting and the – on the licensing and stuff like that which was one really bad thing for our community cause what they got was they got signatures as you went into these meetings and these signatures going to be used so when they go to the legislation – they going say, oh, you need two thousand signatures saying that they agree with you – well, they already got three, four hundred people to sign in these two meetings and not one of them got their questions answered – they’re using people to sign in – to so – when they want to go to the legislation to pass a bill – they already get the signatures that wasn’t meant for them to use to say we held our meetings and these people was in favor of all our information that we gather. ‘Well, when you ask the guys that do the research – what kind fish swim at night? Nobody get one answer. What was they – what were you guys researching out there? Are you guys researching this for the rich people like Hualalai? Stop the locals from going and gathering their rights – if you look at the legislation – all the bills that they want to try and pass – they going stop throw net – they going stop cross net – they going stop shoreline fishing – they want to permit and license these guys – majority of these local fishermen that is not commercial fishermen – they go out there to provide food for their families – but find themselves in court – or find themselves paying fines – or find themselves imprisonment. Really, we don’t need that. We really don’t need that so I’m asking you guys to please guide me the right direction to be heard. SM: Regarding the letter from the Commission – I think we should wait. TN: No. There’s no need to wait because all that letter states is the laws... It has nothing to do with his area. A letter was sent to the Mayor to approve and it states our gathering rights and also Article 11, Section 6 that says in State and Hawaii Revised Statutes – their – all fishing shall be free to the public. So we state these laws to our Mayor to give approval and the meetings you’re talking about is the RPL – Registry, Permit and Licensing that was done in Kona and Hilo and they gave no opportunity to the public to speak. Which was an informational meeting from Hawaii Conservation International whose director is Mathew Ramsey. BKK: Can I interject for a second? I’m not really understanding what side we’re going on because we’re all of a sudden talking about RPL but then we’re talking about Huhonua so... I want to know what correspondence... TN: It’s encompassing everything – what’s happening is... 5